Self-made policy

So there is a federal election on this year. Both the Coalition and Labor party are on about their policies for this and that and whatever....

I was thinking, as a voter, as an observer to the news and events that have happened based on policy made by governments in the past, it is so easy to criticise policies and also so easy to suggest what policies should be forward to parliament.

Now apply this to ourselves. I was actually applying this logic to myself, but I believe it can generally apply to most people. We hardly ever have any policies/rules or liveby. Im not talking about basic policies, like honesty, telling the truth etc. Im talking about more detailed policies.

Take for example investing and saving for the future. Most of us want to retire comfortably. To be 'financially free' so to speak. Now wanting and knowing this, most of us know what steps are required for this to happen. I.E: start putting away a small percentage of your income and then investing that in some index fund or managed fund, not touching that amount for at least 20 - 30 years.

Take another policy example of wanting to continuously improve ourselves. A very broad statement you will agree. It requires further breakdown to help understand where we can work on continuous improvement, Toyota style!

Take as an example the following points:

1. Health
2. Finances
3. Career/business
4. Public speaking
5. Relationship

The above four points are broad areas of life that I want to work on improving. For example health: I ideally have a goal that I live past 85 years of age. I think its doable. But for me to get there, I require to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Agree?? Ofcourse you do.

So what constitutes a healthy lifestyle? Again break it down further;

1. Exercise
2. Eating right
3. Meditation
4. Take a holiday once a year/change of scenery.

Take point no.1 exercise. I have a goal where I can comfortably jog 10km. Now for me to get there, it requires I have excellent cardio fitness levels. As a result of knowing, I have been regularly skipping rope (unfortunately now as regularly as I would like as of late. Poor time management is my excuse). Once I feel I am comfortable with my skipping cardio levels, I want to do other things, like taking up bike riding to strengthen and build leg muscles. As of now, my leg muscles are almost non existent :p



So what I am trying to get at with policy?? Well once having identified how we want to live, what we want to achieve, we need to further breakdown those ideas further into attainable goals. Then work on how we can achieve them on a week by week or even day by day basis.

Working on your own policy and then investing the time required to achieved will have tremendous results come 2-3 years.

Now having wrote this, I need to work on my policy. I need to get reacquainted with my goals and then work on them. Unfortunately, motivation is not a permanent thing. We need constant reminders to do what we want to do.

I'll try and work on my policies further and then work on breaking them down. Once I have done this, I'll put it up here. Keep an eye out for it.